> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.artbeforenoise.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Lights Off - URL: https://www.artbeforenoise.com/scary-album-covers/ - Published: 2026-10-07T22:17:36.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-07T23:08:59.000Z - Description: Ten scary album covers, from a butchered Beatles sleeve and a werewolf Ozzy to a ghost at an old mill. - Author: Craig - Tags: The Playlist, The Beatles, King Crimson, Black Sabbath, Funkadelic, Ozzy Osbourne, The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Korn, Aphex Twins, Antony and the Johnsons I’ve never lost sleep over a record sleeve. Not a single jump scare in all of the 12 inches of cardboard in my collection. So to build this list, I had to stop asking what scares *me* and start looking at which covers have no business being this unsettling. Here are ten disturbing sleeves spanning 1966 to 2009\. Best read with the lights off. Or on, if you are timid. ## 1\. Yesterday and Today - The Beatles (1966) ![The Beatles in white butcher coats, draped in raw meat and dismembered doll parts, on the 1966 album cover.](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/Yeterday-and-Today-Album-Cover.jpg) Four smiling Beatles in white butcher coats, draped in raw meat and the pieces of dismembered dolls. Capitol pulled it, and the replacement was pasted over the top. I wrote about it in [Raw Deal](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/beatles-butcher-cover-yesterday-and-today/). It might be the only cover on this list that scared its own record company. ## 2\. In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson (1969) ![Giant screaming face painted by Barry Godber on the cover of King Crimson's debut album.](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/In-the-Court-of-the-Crimson-King-King-Crimson-album-cover.jpg) A huge, screaming face painted by Barry Godber, a computer programmer who never did another album cover. It's a portrait of the Schizoid Man from the first song on the record, "21st Century Schizoid Man". I can't think of another cover that shouts this loud. [Buy It](https://link.amazon/B08PMh0F0?ref=artbeforenoise.com). ## 3\. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (1970) ![Black-robed figure in front of an old watermill, on pink-toned infrared film, on Black Sabbath's debut album cover.](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/Black-Sabbath-album-cover.jpg) A black-robed figure in front of an old watermill, with the trees turned pink by infrared film. For years the only credit was a single name, Keef, and nobody knew who she was. [Photographer Keith Macmillan finally explained it in 2020](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/black-sabbath-cover-art-keef-keith-macmillan-interview-951578/?ref=artbeforenoise.com). She was Louisa Livingstone, an 18-year-old model who'd been up before dawn in the freezing cold. They tried dry ice on the water, then settled for a smoke machine. [Buy It](https://link.amazon/B0gGVttDG?ref=artbeforenoise.com). ## 4\. Maggot Brain - Funkadelic (1971) ![Woman's head rising from the ground with her mouth open in a scream, on the cover of Funkadelic's Maggot Brain.](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/Maggot-Brain-by-Funkadelic-Album-Cover.jpg) A woman's head rising from the earth, mouth open in a scream. If you want the full story, it's in [Screaming From The Earth](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/maggot-brain-funkadelic-album-cover/). ## 5\. Bark at the Moon - Ozzy Osbourne (1983) ![Ozzy Osbourne in full werewolf makeup, snarling, on the cover of his 1983 album Bark at the Moon.](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/Ozzy-Osbourne---Bark-at-the-Moon-album.jpg) Ozzy as a snarling werewolf, shot by Fin Costello at Shepperton Studios. [The shoot took more than six hours and cost about £50,000](https://www.loudersound.com/features/ozzy-was-on-his-hands-and-knees-with-these-rottweilers-behind-him-but-what-i-didnt-realise-was-that-ozzy-was-terrified-of-dogs-how-ozzy-osbourne-was-transformed-into-a-big-scary-werewolf-for-bark-at-the-moons-iconic-cover?ref=artbeforenoise.com), with four smoke machines, cranes and generator trucks. Then came the Rottweilers. Ozzy, it turned out, was terrified of dogs. By five in the morning he'd had enough, and the crew ended up having a very odd chat with a werewolf, his wife Sharon, who'd given birth two days earlier, a nanny and a tea lady. [Buy It](https://link.amazon/B0iW10nwJ?ref=artbeforenoise.com). ## 6\. Music for the Jilted Generation - The Prodigy (1994) ![Tormented face that looks cast in metal, on the cover of The Prodigy's Music for the Jilted Generation.](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/Music-for-the-Jilted-Generation-The-Prodigy-album.jpg) A tormented face that looks cast in metal, by Stewart Haygarth. The sleeve people remember is the inside: a painting by horror and fantasy illustrator Les Edwards, read by many as a comment on the 1994 Criminal Justice Act, the law that took aim at raves. Liam Howlett has said it was chosen long before the Bill, so it's a coincidence. Haygarth himself says the artwork makes him cringe because he never liked it. [Buy It](https://link.amazon/B0fUkXxA9?ref=artbeforenoise.com). ## 7\. Antichrist Superstar - Marilyn Manson (1996) ![](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/Antichrist-Superstar-Marilyn-Manson-album-1.jpg) ![](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/Antichrist-Superstar-Marilyn-Manson-rear-cover-album.jpg) Two covers in one. On the front of the slipcase is a shirtless, spider-veined Manson as "the worm", and on the back he's in a suit and tie as the "[antichrist superstar](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/mechanical-animals-album-cover/)". [Designer P.R. Brown built it](https://www.revolvermag.com/culture/marilyn-mansons-antichrist-superstar-story-behind-album-cover-art/?ref=artbeforenoise.com) from photos by Dean Karr, and the words "Heart, Mind, Complacent, Malice" on the front came from a fake album cover he sent in his pitch. [Buy It](https://link.amazon/B0aSJUhQy?ref=artbeforenoise.com). ## 8\. Life Is Peachy - Korn (1996) ![Black-and-white photo of a small boy adjusting his tie in a gilt mirror, a huge shadow behind him, on Korn's Life Is Peachy.](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/Life-Is-Peachy-Korn-album.jpg) A small boy with combed hair adjusts his tie in a gilt mirror, and behind him looms a huge shadow. The photograph is by Martin Riedl, the design by Scott Leberecht, and it continues the "[threatened child](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/siamese-dream-smashing-pumpkins-album-cover/)" look of Korn's debut. The title came from bassist Fieldy, who liked to scribble "Life Is" in front of brand names. The band wanted a Pee Chee folder on the cover and offered $20,000, and the company said no. [Buy It](https://link.amazon/B08ZTEmBv?ref=artbeforenoise.com). ## 9\. Richard D. James Album - Aphex Twin (1996) ![High-contrast close-up of Aphex Twin's grinning face against a white background, on the Richard D. James Album cover.](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/Richard-D-James-Album-Aphex-Twin-cover.jpg) A high-contrast photo of Richard D. James's face grinning at you against pure white. It's the second of his albums to put his face on the sleeve, and by his own account he broke an unwritten rule and got carried away. He's also said the grotesque look is deliberate: where magazines flatter people, he went the other way. [Buy It](https://link.amazon/B0gqUo2Oz?ref=artbeforenoise.com). ## 10\. The Crying Light - Antony and the Johnsons (2009) ![Black-and-white portrait of butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno on the cover of Antony and the Johnsons' The Crying Light.](https://www.artbeforenoise.com/content/images/2026/10/The-Crying-Light---Antony-and-the-Johnsons-album.jpg) Not scary so much as ghostly: a 1977 portrait of the butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno, photographed by Naoya Ikegami. Antony Hegarty first fell for an Ohno image as a student in France, when he asked some posterers for a copy and kept it above his bed. That photo later became the cover of the *Another World* EP, and this album is dedicated to Ohno. [Buy It](https://link.amazon/B00lRDKND?ref=artbeforenoise.com). I said at the start that no album cover has ever scared me, and ten covers later that hasn't changed. But I'd happily leave a few of these facing the wall. Lights off. Got a scary cover? Sign up and leave a comment. It's free!